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One
book I'm getting a tremendous kick out of at the moment is Pamela
Des Barres' classic, voyeuristic read I'm With The Band,
her groupie memoirs (first published back in 1987) detailing her
time in this crazy business we call show.

"Where
she really excels is in painting a picture of a magical time
in LA's musical history, while also capturing the freewheeling
spirit of the time..."

If
you haven't read it, it's a fascinating account of her adventures
within the LA music fraternity - and all who sailed through her
(well almost!) from the mid 1960s onwards.

Growing up in Reseda, California and besotted with music and pop
stars from an early age, Pamela began with an unrequited love for
Beatle Paul and subsequently developed a penchant for musicians
of the English variety.

different variations

Along
the way she became 'special friends' with Mick Jagger, Keith Moon,
Noel Redding, Byrds man Chris Hillman, the great country rocker
Gram Parsons, Jimmy Page and actors such as Brandon de Wilde and
Don Johnson.

Her
speciality was oral sex and legend has it, to quote a Carly Simon
lyric, 'Nobody did it better'!
She was also a member of Frank Zappa's notorious all-girl group,
the GTOs, which stood for Girls Together Outrageously but also had
many different variations.

The
GTOs were a group of ladies with names like Miss Pamela, Miss Mercy
and Miss Christine, who recorded songs with evocative titles such
as 'The Captain' s Fat Theresa Shoes' and 'Do Me In Once
And I'll Cry, Do Me in Twice And I'll Know Better'!

Their
philosophy in life was, quite simply, like the boys from Spinal
Tap, to "have a good time, all the time"!

magical time

Where
Pamela des Barres really excels in the book though is in painting
a picture of a magical time in LA's musical history, while also
capturing the freewheeling spirit of the time at a stage when the
dreaded AIDS hadn't even been thought of.

It's
a view that we rarely get to read about so candidly, and I can't
wait to see the TV movie based on Pamela's life which is planned
for release later this year.

(I'm With The Band by Pamela Des
Barres has been reissued by Helter Skelter books)

listen
hear
Gram Parsons and 'A Song For You' from GP/Grievous Angel click
here(listen
in Windows Media Player - need
help?)listen
hear
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention and 'Dog Breath In The
Year Of The Plague' from Uncle Meat click
here